Title says it all, really. I was unable to get through the first mission before rage quitting due to the awful design choices. First I got stuck for ages in the room with the three switches until I realized there was a fourth switch in another room hidden by a charging station in the foreground, then I got killed due to cameras deciding that they were going to be immune to bombs, then I locked myself behind a forcefield with no way get out, then I made it to level 4 whereupon the alarm sounded and I was unable to make any more progress as a result of not being able to shut the alarm up. I mean, I remember that No Remorse had some rough edges, but this... Fuck me, I don't think I've seen design this awful in No Remorse. Is it just me?

Yes.

I never experienced things you mentioned on first mission and even consider design better than No Remorse (which has some questionable 1-way, broken sequence instances if you kill some enemy or civilian too fast or tunnels of pipes, also invisible ledges where you could run over whole map to other level). In No Regret you always have option to either open panel or things differently or get the key from desk or from the enemy, flame all of them or just lock behind doors, these actions were scarce in No Remorse or badly implemented, hell even platform jumping and aim is more accurate in sequel. Equipment is more useful also leading to interesting situations on missions because of their layout, I never used mines, explosives or energy weapons in original.

However, music can get annoying especially when you hear it all the time in more complex levels.

Granted, No Reget can certainly be more quirky than it's predecessor, especially when pixel hunting is more intense here. Yeah, pixel hunting for that hidden switch or keycard. No Remorse had it but no where near the level No Regret does. Thing is, you get used to it the longer you play. Some of the cameras can't be destroyed until the generators are destroyed first, other times cameras can't be destroyed because of quirks in the game engine. For the second problem, no remorse was the same. The only way I got around this was save scumming. Alarm stations should never be that far away so deactivating the alarm should have been quite easy. You did look for those panels right? The second game was a lot more unforgiving than the first but I played through no regret twice on loose cannon difficulty and never rage quit.